


The Liars

by silently_sassy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Anorexia, Bullies, Bullying, Cyberbullying, Early Work, Finished, Friendship, Needs Editing, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Story - Freeform, Other, POV Female Character, POV First Person, POV Original Character, Random & Short, Rape Aftermath, Rape/Non-con Elements, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-10 09:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6950374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silently_sassy/pseuds/silently_sassy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone lies.<br/>The mirror lies and shows her images of a skeleton; of a girl with a thigh gap and a rib cage that can be seen through her stomach.<br/>The scale lies; it gives her impossibly low numbers. Numbers that clearly don't describe the way she feels.<br/>Because Aubrey Smith, the New Aubrey, the Better Aubrey, the Pretty Aubrey, still feels very much like the Old Aubrey.<br/>The Aubrey that was hurt and broken in so many ways.<br/>The Aubrey that didn't know Emma<br/>Emma. Emma is the only one that doesn't lie. The greatest friend a girl could ever ask for. Emma is the one who saved her, who always saves her.<br/>But, Aubrey's world come to surprising halt when she's saved by somebody else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Liars

** The Liars **

** Aubrey P.O.V. **

 

The air around me feels stale, heavy. It smells like alcohol wipes and latex gloves. _Am I in a hospital?_ I look next to me, at the IV bad that slowly drip-drip-drips clear fluids into my veins. I turn my head to see the rest of the room. It has a big window on one side, shutters closed so I can’t see anything. The other side had a door, a chair and a small nightstand. My clothes  are neatly folded on the chair and my phone is lying on the nightstand.

Suddenly, the doorknob begins to turn and I close my eyes. Not ready to wake up yet.

“Aubrey? Aubrey, are you awake?” A voice calls. They know my name but I didn’t recognize the voice.

“Ms. Smith? I’m Dr. Owens, Ashley Owens. I just want to ask you some questions.”

I close my eyes tighter and turn away, hoping Dr. whoever would get the message.  A sigh and then the door closes.  I want to go back to sleep, but I’m not tired. My eyes stubbornly remain open. I grab my phone and text Emma, my best friend. The action causes an aching pain to flash through my arm. I see that it’s covered in bandages.

 _Where r u?_ I quickly type to Emma.

Emma would know how to fix this, how to get me out of here. She was a good friend. My best friend. I knew because she was the only one that didn’t lie to me. Everyone else lies. The mirror shows me images of this skeleton girl with a rib cage that can be seen through her stomach and a thigh gap so wide, a person could crawl through it. The scale lies too. It gives small numbers, impossible numbers. Those aren’t me. My parents did the same. When they visited for Christmas, they had exchanged horrified glances and told me that I had lost too much weight. Emma told me they were wrong. Emma explained how they all lied and why. She said that it was because they didn’t love me, didn’t care about me; Because they didn’t want me to be skinny and healthy and pretty. “But,” she would always say, “I Care.”  Emma told me to send my parents away, to send them far far away. So I did. Because she cared, and they didn’t.

_I’m on my way, Bree. I’ll be there soon._

A loud sigh of relief escaped my mouth. Good, I could relax. Emma would take care of me, she always did.

The door opened again, but I didn’t have time to close my eyes. The doctor came in and saw I was clearly awake.

“Great, you are up. I just need to check you really quick, you’ve been out for a while.” She walked to the side of the bed and pulled out a small flashlight. She used her fingers to hold the lids of each of my eyes open as she flashed the light in both of them.

“Ahg” I said, recoiling and pushing her hands away.

“I’m sorry. You’ve been out for over 48 hours. I needed to make sure you were still responsive.”

I rolled my eyes at her. _Responsive enough, yet?_

“So, again, I’m Dr. Owens and I just have a few questions for you, to make sure your ok. Just answer these and you can go ok?”

She spoke really slowly, and really softly. It was as if she was scared I would lash out at any word. I knew one other person who spoke like that, in another lifetime. A different Aubrey with different problems and different friends and a different body who knew someone very similar to this doctor lady. 

“What did you eat for breakfast, the morning before you came here.”

“Nothing” I responded, with a small smile. I was proud of that; the fact that I could wake up in the morning and not head directly toward the kitchen like Old Aubrey would have done. Dr. Owens took some notes on a mini-legal pad.

“OK. So, what did you do in the morning?”

“I played cards and chatted a bit with Emma.”

“Emma? Who is Emma?”

“Emma’s my best friend.” I said, matter-of-factly

“right, right, my bad, sorry.” She said. “When was the last time you ate, Aubrey.”

I ground my teeth together, my tongue feeling too dry at the mention of food. My mouth began to water and I found it hard to swallow.

“Water,” I said, “I need water.”

“Of course, Of course. Here you go.” Dr. Owens said, handing me a water bottle from my night desk. I twisted the cap off and brought the tip to my mouth, letting the fluids run down my throat and into my empty stomach. I took a long sip and held some in my mouth, moving it from cheek to cheek to clean off the dry saliva that coated every tooth. Much better.

“I drink a lot of water. I don’t eat.” I expect her to tell me how unhealthy that is, and how it doesn’t actually make you lose weight, and how it will probably kill me, but she just nods.

“Aubrey, I know this may be hard,” She said, slower than ever, “But can you tell me how this started?”

“What do you mean?”

“How… how your diet started.”

“oh.” I knew that story and I didn’t want to tell it. The story involved characters I didn't want to remember.

“No” I said.

“No?”

“No, I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not, Aubrey?”

“Is Emma here, I want to talk to Emma.”

“Emma’s gone Aubrey, talk to me.” She sounded frustrated.

“Gone?” I said, “what does that mean?”

“That’s not what I meant, sorry, wrong choice of words. She’s just… not here.”

This doctor lady was beginning to bug me. Soft tone to frustrated tone. Emma’s gone, Emma’s not gone. Why couldn’t she just be straightforward.

“Ok,” Dr. Owens said, “What if you tell me about the time when you and Emma first met? Is that Ok?” I thought about that. Could I tell one story and still avoid the other?

I began, “Emma and I met in high school, senior year.  She was a new student and didn’t know many people. She didn’t want to either. She always told me that she’d already met me and that, since we were going to be Best Friends Forever, it didn’t matter who else she knew.” Dr. Owens took some quick notes and then looked back at me. She had pale blue eyes, like Emma. Suddenly, my mouth began to move, spilling words I did not want to say.

“I… I didn’t have very many friends at the time.” I looked down at my bed sheets, covering small, thin wrists. “I was having some trouble with a couple of the kids there, they, uh, weren’t very nice.” My heart started beating quickly and each breath became shorter and quicker as I remembered Their faces.  _No, No, No_ , I shook my head, _They’re gone, Aubrey. Let them go._

“I don’t want to.” I told the doctor. “I don’t want to remember them.”

“It’s ok Aubrey, it’s ok. Just tell me what you want to. Nobody’s forcing you to do anything.” She was so calm, so put together. It helped. I looked at her and it was like I was seeing Emma. Dr. Owens’ blue eyes. Emma’s eyes. There was no difference. I took slow, deep breaths, calming myself, carefully.

“Ok.” I said. “Emma, she helped me.  There were these three boys, three really mean boys, who would… they would, say things to me… when nobody was looking. Old Aubrey, she was big. She was overweight I mean. She ate too much and didn’t exercise enough, but in senior year, it got bad. She gained 15 pounds that summer and it pushed her off the overweight chart and into the obese chart. Mom said it was fine, that body image didn’t matter as long as school was good. So, Old Aubrey made sure to keep her straight A record and tried not to worry about the numbers on the scale. But They made it worse. They would pass me in the halls and drop my books and whisper in my ear and say things like ‘What’s wrong fat ass, can’t bend down that far?’ or ‘Pretend they’re McBurgers, we know how much you love those.’ I thought it was stupid at first, and I just ignored them. They weren’t my first bullies and I knew they wouldn’t be my last, so I didn’t even try to stand up to them. I didn’t think they would go so far, though.” My eyes began to tear up as I remembered The Incident. I covered my face in my palms to hide the tears from the doctor. I don’t want to tell this story. This is the one that should stay buried, the one no one should ever talk about. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to stop the words from leaving my mouth.

“They,” I said from behind my hands, “They followed me home one night. I was worried about this quiz that I had to study for, so I didn’t even pay attention to the whispers behind me. I should have. I should have called the cops. I live in a small one story house, with lots of shrubbery surrounding it. My mom, she likes to garden, so there is always something green and pretty surrounding the house. That night, they used the plants to hide cameras outside the bathroom window. It was cruel, but they thought it was hilarious. The window is at the long end of a small rectangular bathroom. The shower is directly across from it and the toilet and sink are in between. They had a perfect view of everything.  They recorded me as I pulled down my pants and sat on the toilet and as I stripped and stepped on the scale and then as I leaned against the wall and cried because I’d gained another pound. They left the camera on as I showered and sang and washed my hair. They saw the whole thing, the whole damn thing, and it was on video too. The next morning, it was everywhere; Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. Millions of people had seen me. They had blurred out my parts but that didn’t really make it any better. I felt violated. I felt as if, with every view, another person had taken advantage of me. It was rape on a cyber level.  I felt dirty and disgusting; less than human.” I shuddered as I said those last words. I had never told this to anyone but Emma, it felt so strange.

“I felt eyes on me, when I walked to school that morning.” I continued. I hugged my self, fighting off imaginary stares. “They were watching me; they were ALL WATCHING ME!” I shouted at Dr. Owens. The tears finally began to fall down my face, creating streams of salty water on my cheeks. I held my stomach, feeling suddenly nauseous. My breathing turned rapid again as I remembered what Old Aubrey felt like in that moment. “THEY SAW IT ALLL. THEY WATCHED ME CRY AND IT MADE THEM LAUGH. IT MADE THEM LAUGH, IT Made…them…laugh.” I said as my breaths became faster and faster. My chest moved up and down quickly, too quickly. I couldn’t stop. I could feel their eyes, their laughs, their eyes, their laughs, their eyes… hands. Hands on my shoulders. Whose hands? Where am I? Breathing speeds up, too fast, can’t breathe. Heave. Need air. No air. Need air. Heave.

“AUBREYY!!” voice. I hear a voice. Heave.

 “Aubrey, it’s ok. You’re ok. Calm down. Stay with me. I’m right here” Cough. It's doctor lady. cough again. Breathing slows. Air, I have air.

“Aubrey, you’re going to be just fine. They are gone. You are here. Right here, with me.” Hands on my hands, squeezing tight. Really tight. Fine, I’m going to be fine. More air into my lungs, I can breathe. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. 

“Aubrey, listen. You just had a mild panic attack. It’s not uncommon in people who suffered through what you did.” She looked at me with those blue, sympathetic eyes. “Has it happened before?”

Before? Yes, once. That day. I nod.

“when I realized what happened, I walked straight into the school and into the principal’s office. I told him what had happened and he began to tap keys on his computer, trying to figure out how to take it down. He told me to visit the guidance counselor. I needed directions. I had never been there before. I started walking there. It was first period so only the slackers were in the hallways, but I still felt them looking at me. Eyes on my back. In between my shoulder blades. Right in that space where you can’t really scratch. The guidance counselor reminded me of you. He talked slowly and gently. He tried to choose his words carefully too, like you. But he lied. The same way that everybody lies to me now, he lied to me. He said they were wrong, that their words should just ‘bounce’ off of me. I looked at him, wondering if he was making another fat joke, and I just walked out of his office. He tried asking what was wrong, but I was too angry to listen. I walked straight out of the school, the first time I had ever done that. I crossed the street to a nearby park and sat underneath a big tree. It reminded me of the plants my mom liked to grow. Of the plants, with the cameras. I started to feel like the trees were watching me too. Like they all had hidden cameras and everyone was going to jump out and make fun of big, fat, Aubrey. I found it hard to breathe. Like an asthma attack. I started heaving, trying to get air into my lungs but nothing. they were dry. That's when I saw Emma for the first time. Dark hair, blue eyes, gorgeous skin, great teeth, a perfect body, she had it all. She came and hugged me and told me to calm down. told me it would be fine. She said we would get through it together. She didn't even know me, but here she was, comforting me.   That’s how we became best friends. She told me It never had to happen again. She told me that she knew how to stop Them. ‘It’s easy.’ She'd said, ‘just don’t eat.’ So I didn’t.”

Dr. Owens nodded, finally understanding.

“From then on, we were always together. I stopped going to school, choosing to work from home instead. My teachers understood. They told the other kids I had broken my leg and I couldn’t move. But the kids knew why I wasn’t there. Emma stayed with me, though. We had secret sleepovers all the time. She would sneak in my window, past the shrubbery. It was fun, like having a sister. I was an only child, so it was a whole new experience to me. She was always around, making sure I didn’t eat the wrong things. If I went for the milk instead of the water at lunch, she would turn it around and show me the sugars and the calories. Never going to lose weight with that. So she would hand me a water bottle instead and show me the nice zeros. She said those zeros were almost as good friends to me as she was. So I went through a whole month of only eating 700 calories a day. Sometimes less. Never more. By the time I reached graduation, I had lost nearly 30 pounds. My parents said I looked beautiful. Everyone complimented me. My mom bought me tons of new clothes. And she threw out all of my old ones too. I became a new Aubrey, a better Aubrey.”

“Aubrey, I’m sorry to say this but you’re in the hospital because you passed out from starvation. Your neighbor heard you fall. You tried to grab a lamp on the way down but ended up breaking it. That saved you. Your next door neighbor tried knocking on your door and when you didn’t open he called 911. Actually, he saved you.”

Starvation? I spent 3 days with no food. Only drinking water and the occasional sugar-free lemonade (yes, just lemon and water) but it wasn’t the first time. I remember feeling dizzy, the room spinning, yes, I remember falling. The lamp. I broke the lamp. Then it goes black. Where was Emma? It didn’t make sense. Emma should have saved me. Emma always saves me.

“What about Emma?” I ask, confused.

“Aubrey, oh Aubrey. Emma’s not real. She was never real. You made her up. I’m sorry.”

“NO” I said with indignation. “NO!  YOU’RE WRONG!”

“Calm down. It’s ok.” Hands on my shoulders again. I push them away. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense.

“SHE’S MY BEST FRIEND. MY SISTER. AND YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT SHE’S NOT REAL. TO HELL WITH CALM. YOU’RE A LIAR. LIKE EVRYONE ELSE. THEY ALL LIE. YOU ALL LIE. EMMA DOESN’T…lie.” Breathe “Emma is the only one who never lies. Where is she?”

“Aubrey, you made her up. Your mind was in desperate need of help after what those boys did to you. You were having a panic attack. You needed a friend. So, you made one up.”

“But other people know her. Others have met her.”

“No they haven’t. She only exists in your head. Your brain would twist situations to include her, but she was never there. Nobody else knows an Emma. Your parents are outside. They’ve been waiting to speak to you. But I asked, they don’t know an Emma.”

“I don’t understand.” Even though, I did. I remembered how easily Emma could fit in the window when she snuck in. That didn’t make sense, the window was too small. Or why she even snuck in at all. Why couldn’t my parents know Emma was there.

 _It’s more fun if it’s just you and me,_ I heard the memory of Emma’s voice in my head.

“Why isn’t she here now?” I asked.

“You hit your head on the floor, when you fell. You have a mild concussion that may be prohibiting your brain from producing an image of Emma. We ran a CT scan to see, but it was inconclusive. She’s not completely gone. You’ll need intensive therapy and medication to truly get rid of her.”

“you’re telling me that I need to suffer through all that, to get rid of my best friend?” My voice cracked as I reached the end of that sentence.

“I know it’s going to be hard…”

“NO YOU DON’T. YOU DON’T KNOW HOW HARD IT WILL BE! You’re asking me to kill my best friend. The only friend I’ve ever had. How... I can’t...I won’t...”

“Aubrey, we are going to run some tests now. I have no more questions for you. We are going to make sure you get the help you need.” Hand squeeze.

Then, she got up and left, straight out the door.

 

**Author's Note:**

> comment your opinion. Anything I should edit? general feedback? anything's good.  
> thanks!


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